The queue (well, more of an amorphous, fast talking crowd) was already 30 girls long when my daughter Merav arrived at the Malcha shopping mall in Jerusalem. The girls – teenagers and young adults mostly – were from all kinds of different backgrounds, from completely secular to haredi. But they all had one thing in common: their long oh-so-Israeli hair was tied into a braid with rubber bands at the top and bottom. And soon that hair would be no more.
